[Newsbot]

Title: Australian lizards on verge of evolutionary leap
Category: Science
Posted By: DerbyX
Date: 2010-08-28 10:14:30

[sandorski]

Interesting.

[ShepherdsDog]

Sharks give live birth, but they aren't more evolved than skinks.

[andyt]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Sharks give live birth, but they aren't more evolved than skinks.

gotta do a sandorski here - fail

what does more evolved mean?

[Guy_Fawkes]

This still wont convince most creationists, they will just say its more micro evolution.

Pretty cool though.

[ShepherdsDog]

It's not a major step forward is what I'm saying. There a few ovoviviparous reptiles, so it's not anything big, like finding one that has an endothermic metabolism. Also fish which are lower on the evolutionary scale than reptiles give live birth, like the sharks I mentioned, and the shark is one of the most primitive of fish. We still have egg laying mammals.

[andyt]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

It's not a major step forward is what I'm saying. There a few ovoviviparous reptiles, so it's not anything big, like finding one that has an endothermic metabolism. Also fish which are lower on the evolutionary scale than reptiles give live birth, like the sharks I mentioned, and the shark is one of the most primitive of fish. We still have egg laying mammals.

I don't think evolution is about a race to some higher place. It's just the organism responding to it's environment - whatever is most adaptive. Sharks haven't had to evolve much for millions of years because they work.

The point of the article is that you can see a particular species in a transition point between oviparous and ovoviviparous birth.

Isn't there some endothermic fish or something?

[jeff744]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

It's not a major step forward is what I'm saying. There a few ovoviviparous reptiles, so it's not anything big, like finding one that has an endothermic metabolism. Also fish which are lower on the evolutionary scale than reptiles give live birth, like the sharks I mentioned, and the shark is one of the most primitive of fish. We still have egg laying mammals.

So if monkeys suddenly start to speak English fluently that is not a major step?

[ShepherdsDog]

Seeing as their larnyx is incapable of replicating human speech, it'd be impossible.

[jeff744]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Seeing as their larnyx is incapable of replicating human speech, it'd be impossible.

You are avoiding the question, would it be a major leap if they could?

[ShepherdsDog]

What do you think? I'm not avoiding anything, it's sort of a silly question, seeing as we've already proven that other apes can be taught sign language, and that they have rudimentary tool using capabilities.

[jeff744]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

What do you think? I'm not avoiding anything, it's sort of a silly question, seeing as we've already proven that other apes can be taught sign language, and that they have rudimentary tool using capabilities.

And yet you are calling a leap which is the equivalent of that nothing big, the reptiles have jumped onto a completely different path than they previously followed for about 300 million years.

[ShepherdsDog]

$1:

the reptiles have jumped onto a completely different path than they previously followed for about 300 million years.

no they haven't. I've already pointed out, in an earlier post, that there are already species of ovoviviparous reptiles, and that they existed looooong before the isolated skink population began their transition.

[jeff744]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

$1:

the reptiles have jumped onto a completely different path than they previously followed for about 300 million years.

no they haven't. I've already pointed out, in an earlier post, that there are already species of ovoviviparous reptiles, and that they existed looooong before the isolated skink population began their transition.

and those ones happen to exist in a completely different environment where laying eggs is nearly impossible.

[ShepherdsDog]

really?? turtles, crocs, caymans, other lizards and alligators all reside in the same environments as snakes, yet they lay eggs. Sort of shoots that postulation down.